Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Jose Castillo

Outright Assignments: 7/31/25

By | at

Here’s the rundown of a few outright assignments that were announced during the blizzard of roster moves taking place on deadline day…

  • Catcher Jacob Stallings cleared waivers, and elected free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to the Orioles’ Triple-A affiliate.  Baltimore designated Stallings for assignment earlier this week, and since he has been previously outrighted in his career, Stallings had the ability to opt for free agency this time around.  Stallings signed a minor league deal with the O’s last month when the team was dealing with a myriad of catching injuries, and he was selected to the active roster to appear in 14 games.  Now in his 10th big league season, Stallings has hit .134/.195/.168 over 129 combined plate appearances with the Orioles and Rockies in 2025.  While these struggles represent a low for Stallings, he has generally been a below-average hitter apart from an .810 OPS over 281 PA with Colorado last year.
  • The Mets outrighted left-hander Jose Castillo off their 40-man roster and assigned him to Triple-A Syracuse.  It is the second time in a little over a month that Castillo was DFA’ed and then outrighted, and he chose to accept his last assignment to Syracuse rather than test free agency.  After posting an ugly 11.37 ERA in 6 1/3 innings with the Diamondbacks, Castillo was traded to New York in mid-May and has pitched well when he has been in the big leagues, with a 2.19 ERA over 12 1/3 innings and 14 relief appearances.  This is Castillo’s first real sustained stretch of decent MLB results since his 2018 rookie season with the Padres, when he had a 3.29 ERA across his first 38 1/3 frames in the Show.
  • The Braves outrighted catcher Jason Delay to Triple-A Gwinnett.  Delay also has a past outright on his resume, but it isn’t yet known if he’ll accept the assignment or opt for free agency.  It wasn’t known that Delay had been designated for assignment, but the move isn’t too surprising, as the Braves are deep at catcher and Delay hadn’t seen any time on Atlanta’s active roster.  Delay has a .231/.295/.315 slash line over 373 PA in the majors, all with the Pirates from 2022-24.  The Braves acquired him from the Bucs in April to add depth when Sean Murphy was recovering from a broken rib.

Mets Designate Jose Castillo For Assignment

By | at

The Mets have designated left-hander Jose Castillo for assignment, per a club announcement. The move makes room for the addition of lefty Gregory Soto to the active roster. Soto was acquired from the Orioles on Friday.

Castillo, 29, debuted with the Padres all the way back in 2018. That rookie year saw him pitch to a 3.29 ERA with a 2.64 FIP in 38 1/3 innings of work while striking out opponents at a 34.7% clip. It was an impressive showing, but injuries and ineffectiveness limited Castillo to just three total outings in the majors over the next six seasons. He surrendered five runs on four walks while striking out three in two innings of work during those outings, though he posted decent numbers at the Triple-A level with a 4.32 ERA in 125 innings of work with a 29.1% strikeout rate during that time.

The lefty eventually resurfaced this year and has split his time between the Mets and Diamondbacks. His five outings in Arizona went quite poorly, as he surrendered eight runs on ten hits and three walks while striking out just three in 6 1/3 frames, but since joining the Mets back in May he’s looked much better with a 2.19 ERA and 2.76 FIP in 14 appearances. Castillo has already been designated for assignment and outrighted off New York’s roster once this season. He’ll now go through the waiver process again unless the Mets are able to work out a trade involving him prior to Thursday’s trade deadline. If he goes unclaimed on waivers once again, he’ll have the opportunity to either accept an outright assignment to the minor leagues from the Mets or elect free agency, at which point he would be free to sign with any of the league’s 30 clubs on a fresh contract.

Replacing Castillo on the roster is Soto who the Mets dealt a pair of prospects to Baltimore in order to acquire. The southpaw has a 3.96 ERA in 36 1/3 innings of work for the Orioles this year, with a 27.5% strikeout rate and a 3.28 FIP. A two time All-Star with the Tigers in 2021 and ’22, Soto was shipped to the Phillies prior to the 2023 season and has struggled during his time with Philadelphia and Baltimore since then, with a lackluster 4.53 ERA across the 2023 and ’24 seasons despite a tidy 3.63 FIP. The Mets will surely help that they can help him return to his prior All-Star caliber form so he can join the late-inning mix alongside closer Edwin Diaz, but even if Soto is little more than a league average middle relief arm for the club he’ll offer much-needed depth to a bullpen that has lost a half dozen relievers to the injured list already.

Mets Select José Castillo

By | at

The Mets announced today that they have selected left-hander José Castillo to the roster. Right-hander Alex Carrillo has been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse in a corresponding active roster move. Righty Max Kranick has been transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot. It was reported a week ago that Kranick will require season-ending elbow surgery.

The Mets have been churning arms through their bullpen for a long time, thanks to a string of injuries, particularly to left-handers. They had planned on having A.J. Minter and Danny Young as their southpaw contingent in the bullpen but both required season-ending surgeries by the middle of May. Since then, they’ve also lost Kranick and Dedniel Núñez to the scalpel.

Castillo, 29, was one of the reinforcements. He was acquired from the Diamondbacks in mid-May, shortly after Minter and Young went down. He spent a little over a month on the roster, tossing 11 1/3 innings, allowing three earned runs despite giving up 16 hits, issuing six walks and hitting four opponents. He struck out 14 batters and got ground balls on 55.9% of balls in play allowed.

The Mets bumped him off the roster at the end of June and then passed him through waivers. He accepted an outright assignment and has since been pitching for Syracuse, allowing one earned run in 5 1/3 innings.

Not too long ago, the Mets activated Brooks Raley from the injured list, as he had recovered from last year’s Tommy John surgery. They acquired Gregory Soto from the Orioles earlier today. Now with Castillo coming back, they will have three lefties whenever Soto reports to the team. However, it’s also possible that Castillo gets bumped out again to make room for Soto at that point. The Mets could also make further relief additions between now and next week’s deadline.

Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images

Colin Poche Elects Free Agency

By | at

Veteran reliever Colin Poche elected free agency after being outrighted by the Mets, relays Laura Albanese of Newsday. Fellow southpaw José Castillo also went unclaimed and was outrighted off New York’s 40-man roster, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Castillo has the right to elect free agency as well, though it’s unclear if he intends to do so.

Poche and Castillo are part of a revolving door of Mets’ lefty relievers. That role has been in flux since the A.J. Minter and Danny Young injuries. They’re now operating with Richard Lovelady and Brandon Waddell in that capacity. Poche, who signed a minor league contract in early May, was only on the MLB roster for a few days. He made one appearance, retiring two of six batters faced and giving up a pair of runs. Poche spent the first month of the season with the Nationals, allowing 12 runs with more walks than strikeouts in 8 2/3 innings.

This has been a frustrating season for the 31-year-old in both MLB and (to a lesser extent) at the Triple-A level. He was a decent middle reliever for the Rays as recently as last year. Poche turned in a 3.86 ERA across 37 1/3 frames with Tampa Bay in 2024. The Mets could look to bring him back on a new minor league contract given their lack of depth from the left side.

Castillo landed in Queens in a DFA trade with the Diamondbacks. He got a longer run in Carlos Mendoza’s relief corps than Poche had. The 29-year-old made 13 appearances and allowed five runs (three earned) across 11 1/3 innings. He punched out 14 but issued six walks and plunked another four hitters. This has been Castillo’s first significant stretch of MLB action since he made 37 appearances during his 2018 rookie season with the Padres, largely because of various intervening injuries.

Mets Designate José Castillo, Richard Lovelady For Assignment

By | at

The Mets announced that they have selected right-hander Jonathan Pintaro to the roster, a move that was reported yesterday, and recalled left-hander Brandon Waddell. In corresponding moves, they have designated left-handers José Castillo and Richard Lovelady for assignment.

The Mets opened the season with A.J. Minter and Danny Young as the lefties in their bullpen. They lost both of them before the end of April. Minter required season-ending lat surgery while Young required Tommy John surgery.

Shortly thereafter, the out-of-options Castillo was designated for assignment by the Diamondbacks. The Mets sent some cash to Arizona in order to skip the waiver queue. He has generally performed well since becoming a Met, having tossed 11 1/3 innings with a 2.38 earned run average, 24.1% strikeout rate, 10.3% walk rate and 55.9% ground ball rate.

Getting bumped off the roster today might simply be due to the club having a taxed bullpen, as they used all eight of their relievers in the past two days. Reed Garrett pitched on both days, including 22 pitches last night. Three other relievers on the club, including Lovelady, tossed 24 pitches or more last night.

They have added some fresh arms to the group today but Castillo has been bumped into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Mets could take as long as five days to explore trade interest.

Lovelady, 29, was just signed a couple of days ago. There was an amusing bit of confusion about his name when the Mets announced him as “Dicky” Lovelady. Per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, the lefty does go by “Dicky” during casual interactions but will be referred to as “Richard” in official settings such as in print and on scoreboards.

He tossed an inning and two thirds for the Mets last night, allowing two earned runs via two walks and a hit, while striking out one. Like Castillo, he is out of options and has been bumped off the roster and into DFA limbo.

Prior to joining the Mets, he was in good form on a minor league deal with the Twins. He had tossed 20 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level with a 1.31 ERA, 26.5% strikeout rate, 8.4% walk rate and 60.4% ground ball rate.

The Mets now have no real lefty presence in the bullpen. Waddell is a southpaw but he’s likely to be used as a long reliever. Brooks Raley could join the club later in the season but is still recovering from last year’s Tommy John surgery. It seems fair to expect the Mets to be on the lookout for lefty relief help between now and the deadline.

Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images

Diamondbacks Trade Jose Castillo To Mets

By | at

The Mets acquired lefty reliever José Castillo from the Diamondbacks for cash, the teams announced. New York designated righty Kevin Herget for assignment to create a spot on the 40-man roster. Arizona had designated Castillo for assignment on Monday.

Castillo has technically appeared in five MLB seasons, though all but eight of his appearances came with the Padres during his 2018 rookie season. He turned in a 3.29 ERA over 38 1/3 innings that year but was subsequently set back by injury.

The 29-year-old signed a minor league deal with the Snakes in November. It marked his second consecutive season in the Arizona organization. He had spent all of last year with their Triple-A team in Reno, though he lost the first half of that season to injury. The Diamondbacks assigned him back to Reno to begin this season. He struck out seven while tossing 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball and was called up at the beginning of May.

The 6’6″ southpaw only spent a couple weeks in Torey Lovullo’s bullpen. He didn’t pitch well, allowing eight runs on 10 hits (including a trio of home runs) over 6 1/3 frames. Arizona bumped him out of the bullpen when Kendall Graveman returned from injury. Castillo is out of options, so they needed to designate him for assignment to take him off the MLB roster.

That out-of-options status means the Mets are prepared to give Castillo at least some time in their big league bullpen. They’ve been forced to scour the lefty relief market after losing Danny Young and A.J. Minter to season-ending injuries. They called up Génesis Cabrera from Triple-A Syracuse. He’s the only southpaw in Carlos Mendoza’s relief corps. Cabrera has managed five innings of one-run ball over four outings, but he had walked nearly 15% of opposing hitters in Triple-A before the promotion.

The Mets will need to remove someone from the major league bullpen once Castillo reports to the team. Dedniel Núñez is the obvious candidate, since he still has a couple options remaining. Cabrera is out of options, so the Mets would need to designate him for assignment if they wanted to use Castillo as their only left-hander.

Herget relinquishes his spot on the 40-man roster. The Mets claimed the 34-year-old off waivers from Milwaukee early last offseason. He only spent one day on the MLB roster, allowing two runs on three hits in one inning. He has otherwise been working out of the bullpen at Syracuse. Herget has only allowed five runs over 15 2/3 innings, but that came with a pedestrian 13:7 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He had a much stronger 32.4% strikeout rate over 38 appearances with Milwaukee’s top farm team a year ago.

The Mets will likely place Herget on waivers within the next few days. He has been outrighted twice in his career and would have the right to elect free agency if he goes unclaimed.

Diamondbacks Designate Garrett Hampson, José Castillo For Assignment

By | at

The Diamondbacks announced that they have recalled infielder Jordan Lawlar, a move that was previously reported. They also reinstated right-hander Kendall Graveman from the injured list. To open roster spots for those two, lefty José Castillo and infielder Garrett Hampson were both designated for assignment. The club’s 40-man roster count drops to 38.

Hampson, 30, inked a minor league deal in free agency and broke camp with the D-backs after hitting .283/.393/.348 in 56 trips to the plate this spring. He hasn’t been able to carry that production over to the regular season. He’s appeared in only 18 games and taken just 41 turns at the plate, batting .167/.359/.167 in that span. He’s been a pest for opposing pitchers in the sense that he’s taken 10 walks, but Hampson is also 5-for-30 (all singles) and has bottom-of-the-scale contact metrics when he’s put the ball in play.

Arizona is Hampson’s fourth team in four seasons. He spent the first five seasons of his career with the Rockies but since his final season there has had one-year stints with the Marlins, Royals and now D-backs. He hasn’t hit much in any of those spots, combining for a .237/.308/.323 slash in 750 plate appearances dating back to 2022. However, Hamspon is a plus runner (84th percentile sprint speed, per Statcast) who can be deployed virtually anywhere on the diamond. Even though he’s been seldom used with the D-backs, he’s still seen time at five positions: second base, shortstop, third base, left field and center field.

Castillo, 29, has spent the better part of the past half decade in injury rehab. Since a strong MLB debut with the 2018 Padres, the southpaw has been on the injured list due to a torn ligament in his pitching hand, a torn lat and Tommy John surgery. Just making it back to the majors in the wake of so many rapid-fire injuries is a feat, but Castillo’s brief time with the Snakes didn’t go well. He pitched 6 1/3 innings out of Torey Lovullo’s bullpen — already his most in a big league season since ’18 — and was pounded for eight runs on 10 hits and three walks with three strikeouts.

As a rookie, Castillo fired 38 1/3 innings of 3.29 ERA ball for the Friars, fanning a gaudy 34.7% of his opponents against an 8.1% walk rate. He was terrific in a small 5 1/3-inning sample in Triple-A Reno this year, allowing only a run on four hits and no walks with seven strikeouts and a 58% grounder rate. That performance could lead to some interest from other teams, although Castillo’s once-95-mph heater has understandably dipped to an average of 93.3 mph in the wake of all those injuries.

Both Castillo and Hampson can spend a maximum of one week in DFA limbo. The D-backs can look to trade them during that time or simply place them on outright waivers. Since waivers take 48 hours to process, the team has up to five days to orchestrate trades of either player, should there be a market. In the event that they’re placed on waivers and go unclaimed, both players have enough major league service time to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency.

Diamondbacks Place Justin Martinez On 15-Day IL, Transfer A.J. Puk To 60-Day IL

By | at

The D-backs announced Thursday that they’ve placed closer Justin Martinez on the 15-day injured list due to right shoulder inflammation. Lefty Jose Castillo’s contract was selected from Triple-A Reno to take his spot on the active roster. Fellow southpaw A.J. Puk moves from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to create 40-man roster space for Castillo.

Martinez was set for an MRI this morning after experiencing an alarming velocity drop over the past week. He’s gone from averaging triple digits on his power sinker to sitting just 93.5 mph in his most recent appearance. Though the right-hander claimed he felt 100% healthy, he’ll head to the injured list with a still-vague injury designation. The D-backs will surely provide more information on his status and potential timeline later today.

This slate of injury-related moves is a brutal blow for a D-backs team that spent much of the offseason looking for established bullpen arms but wound up making generally smaller-scale moves. Martinez and Puk are the team’s two best relievers and entered the year as the favorites to work in save and high-leverage hold situations. They’re both on the shelf, and while Puk’s flexor strain won’t require surgery, today’s move to the 60-day IL only further underlines the fact that Arizona is going to be without him for quite some time.

Martinez, 23, averaged 100.2 mph on his sinker in 2024 and averaged better than 100 mph on the pitch in each of his first eight appearances this year. A dip into the 97-99 mph range over his next three outings was concerning but not necessarily cause for full-fledged alarm. Last night’s drop all the way to 93.5 mph, in an outing where he faced three hitters and allowed two walks and a home run, is another story entirely.

It’s become an ominous situation for D-backs fans to monitor, and one that’s compounded by Puk’s absence. Martinez broke out with a 2.48 ERA, 29.5% strikeout rate, 11.7% walk rate, 58.9% ground-ball rate, eight saves and seven holds across 72 2/3 innings for the Snakes last year. He clearly has some command issues, but the elite velocity coupled with plus strikeout and ground-ball rates helped to mitigate that bloated walk rate.

The D-backs, clearly bullish on Martinez’s future, signed him to a five-year, $18MM extension during spring training. The contract contains a pair of club options for the 2030-31 seasons, which would’ve been Martinez’s first two free agent years. At the time, there was little reason to fear an injury (beyond the general attrition rate of pitchers in today’s game). Now, the outlook is far hazier.

Were Puk healthy, the Diamondbacks would surely have just plugged him into the closer’s role and moved forward with Kevin Ginkel setting up. But Puk hit the injured list with elbow inflammation after a strong eight-inning start to his 2025 season, and a subsequent MRI revealed a flexor strain that’ll require a notable shutdown period.

With Martinez and Puk both shelved, the D-backs will likely turn closing duties over to a combination of Ginkel and Shelby Miller, who returned to Arizona on a minor league deal this offseason and has been outstanding after earning a job this spring. Ginkel only just returned from his own bout of shoulder inflammation, which sidelined him for the first month of the season. From 2022-24, he pitched a combined 164 2/3 innings with a 2.95 ERA, 26.1% strikeout rate and 7.9% walk rate. Miller has pitched 12 2/3 scoreless innings in his return to Phoenix, punching out a gaudy 31.9% of opponents against an 8.5% walk rate.

The 29-year-old Castillo isn’t likely to replicate the type of results that could’ve been expected from either Martinez or Puk, but he’s a reasonably experienced southpaw who’s had some prior success in the majors. Back in 2018-19, the southpaw looked to be breaking out as a viable bullpen arm for the division-rival Padres, pitching to a combined 3.23 ERA with a 35% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate in his first 39 big league innings.

Injuries have blown up Castillo’s career since. He suffered a torn ligament in his hand that cut his 2019 season short. A torn lat wiped out his 2020 season. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2021 and missed most of the 2022 season as a result. It’s a staggering run of unfortunate maladies for the southpaw, but he’s shown some encouraging signs since joining the D-backs on a minor league deal last year.

In 24 innings between Arizona’s Rookie-ball and Triple-A affiliates last year, Castillo notched a 3.75 ERA. He whiffed 24.1% of his opponents and issued walks at an 8.1% clip with Triple-A Reno. This year, he’s started out by holding opponents to a run on four hits and no walks with seven strikeouts in 5 1/3 frames. Castillo has had an arduous grind to get back to the majors after pitching just two MLB frames from 2019-23. He’s now poised for his first real look in a bullpen since 2018, despite accumulating four years of MLB service time through his various stints on the 60-day injured list.

Because he only has four years of service, Castillo could be a multi-year option for Arizona if he can get back to his early career form. Enough time has already elapsed that he won’t be able to reach five years of service before the conclusion of the 2025 season. That means even if he’s back in the majors for good — and that’s far, far from certain — he can be controlled through the 2027 campaign via arbitration.

Diamondbacks Re-Sign Jose Castillo To Minor League Deal

By | at

The D-Backs are bringing back lefty reliever José Castillo on a minor league deal, reports Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase (X link). Castillo, a client of OL Baseball Group, will get a non-roster invite to MLB camp.

Castillo sticks in the organization for a second season. He spent last year with the Snakes’ top affiliate in Reno. He missed the first half of the year to injury and was limited to 21 appearances. He tossed 20 2/3 innings of 4.35 ERA ball in a very tough park for pitchers. Castillo fanned a decent 24.4% of opponents against an 8.1% walk rate. His fastball averaged 94.3 MPH, a tick below the level he showed with the Padres in 2023.

That generally solid performance wasn’t enough to get a big league look with the Snakes a year ago. Still, Castillo sufficiently impressed the front office to get another non-roster invite. While he didn’t reach the majors last year, he pitched in parts of four seasons with San Diego. The Venezuelan-born southpaw has a 4.24 ERA in 40 1/3 big league innings.

A.J. Puk, Joe Mantiply and Kyle Nelson are the three lefty relievers on Arizona’s 40-man roster. Tommy Henry and Blake Walston could work in long relief or as rotation depth. Puk will pitch in high leverage spots, while the soft-tossing Mantiply has been a steady contributor in the middle innings. Nelson missed almost all of last season after undergoing surgery to treat thoracic outlet syndrome, so he could find himself on the roster bubble in Spring Training. Andrew Saalfrank will be an option midway through the season. He’ll remain on the restricted list into June after being issued a one-year suspension for betting on MLB games while he was in the low minors.

Diamondbacks Release Elvis Andrus

By | at

The Diamondbacks announced Friday that they’ve released shortstop Elvis Andrus, who’d been in camp on a minor league deal. Arizona also optioned first baseman/outfielder Pavin Smith and lefty Andrew Saalfrank to Triple-A Reno. Additionally, non-roster lefty Jose Castillo was reassigned to minor league camp.

Andrus, 35, signed a minor league pact with the Snakes earlier this month. He made it into six official Cactus League games and went 2-for-17 with a pair of singles, a walk and four strikeouts. The D-backs announced even before signing Andrus that Geraldo Perdomo would be the team’s everyday shortstop to begin the season, meaning Andrus was essentially competing for a bench role. The Diamondbacks will apparently stick with in-house options for that spot, including out-of-options third baseman Emmanuel Rivera and veteran utilityman Jace Peterson.

Andrus spent the 2023 season with the White Sox, who signed him in 2022 after his release by the A’s and re-signed him to a big league deal last winter. The two-time All-Star hit well for the South Siders down the stretch in 2022 — .271/.309/.464 (118 wRC+) — but he couldn’t replicate that output in 2023. Andrus opened last year as Chicago’s primary second baseman but hit just .251/.304/.358 (81 wRC+) in 406 plate appearances.

While he only has three career seasons of average or better offense (by measure of wRC+), Andrus has long been a premium defender and baserunner. He’s no longer the plus-plus defender he was at shortstop early in his career, but Andrus can handle any of shortstop, second base or third base — making him a viable utility option for a team in need of some versatility off the bench. His sprint speed dropped way down to the 30th percentile of MLB players last year, per Statcast, but his instincts on the bases still allowed him to swipe a dozen bags in 16 tries.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top